Saturday

Aug 4, 2018 at 6:47 PM

BROWNS TRAINING CAMP: The first pick of the third round in 2017, Ogunjobi primarily played three-technique last season, but has moved him to nose tackle this season, his main position at UNC-Charlotte.

BEREA Larry Ogunjobi’s phone started blowing up March 10 after the Browns had agreed to trade fellow defensive tackle Danny Shelton to the New England Patriots for a third-round draft pick.

Ogunjobi’s family and friends had reached out to him because they knew the move meant the Browns would count on him deliver in an expanded role.

During an interview Wednesday with the Beacon Journal/Ohio.com, Ogunjobi said he told himself at the time of the Shelton trade, “Now it’s in front of you, but it’s still not going to be easy. Nobody’s just going to give you anything.”

Now the Browns, in the midst of training camp, are hoping Ogunjobi earns the starting nose tackle job. Jamie Meder has taken the vast majority of first-team repetitions at the position, though Ogunjobi has received some opportunities with the first unit as well.

“I want to see (Ogunjobi) keep pushing Meder to take the starting job,” defensive line coach Clyde Simmons said July 29.

Ogunjobi, 24, has accepted the challenge.

“If I want to do the things I say I want to do, (winning a starting job is) just one of the things that has to take place,” Ogunjobi said. “So as I come to practice every day, my biggest thing is being the best version of myself each and every day.

“I know (the coaches) see something special in me, but I know what I have in myself and I know nobody can want more from me than me. So I have to continue to push myself every day. Even if I do get the starting job, it doesn’t stop there.”

The first pick of the third round (65th overall) in 2017, Ogunjobi primarily played three-technique last season, but, this year, Browns moved him to nose tackle, his main position at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Although he could always slide back to three-technique — starter Trevon Coley left Thursday’s practice with a high-ankle sprain — nose tackle is Ogunjobi’s preferred spot.

“(Playing nose tackle provides me with the) fastest way to the quarterback, really, a straight line,” Ogunjobi said. “I’m a different type of nose. I’m not this space-eater. I can move. I can get in the backfield. There’s a lot of things I can do to just kind of make things harder on people.”

Ogunjobi’s production as a rookie last season suggests he has the potential to reach this stated goal: “To just be recognized as one of the top players at my position.”

He appeared in 14 games this past year with just one start and had 32 tackles, including a sack. He played 301 of the defense’s 1,068 snaps (28.18 percent).

According to the rankings of the analytics-driven website ProFootballFocus.com, he had the 31st best overall grade and the 18th best run defense grade among 99 qualifying interior defensive linemen. With 12 pressures (four knockdowns and eight hurries), his pass-rush productivity rating tied for 27th among 98 qualifying interior defensive linemen.

Of about a dozen qualifying rookies, he finished with PFF’s top grades in run defense, pass-rushing productivity and run-stop percentage.

“There’s more I can do. I can get better in all three of those categories,” Ogunjobi said when he was told about his high marks in PFF’s database. “So I take those things with a grain of salt because at the end of the day it doesn’t stop there.

“For me, in general, I feel like there’s no cap. ... I just keep pushing that envelope, keep pushing that ceiling because I’m just excited to see what the best possible version of myself is.”

Simmons admitted he doesn’t “get too much into analytics” but has liked what he has seen on game film from Ogunjobi since his days at Charlotte.

“Watching him in college, I saw some movement skills and stuff like that, power and strength for a guy that didn’t play (a lot of) football,” Simmons said. “He’s really come a long way.

“He’s one of those guys who’s (spending time) before and after meetings studying film and doing the things to improve because he’s trying to learn the game, and (he’s) leaps and bounds from where he was last year.”

Simmons is quick to point out Ogunjobi is still raw because he didn’t grow up playing football like many NFL players, and it’s all part of his inspirational story.

Ogunjobi’s parents Larry and Mercy, Nigerian immigrants, became concerned about their son’s health when he ballooned to 350 pounds at age 16 by spending most of his time playing video games and eating strawberry Pop-Tarts. The family met a coach who got a reluctant Ogunjobi onto his high school football team as a sophomore. He lost more than 100 pounds in a year and later packed on muscle to complete a dramatic transformation.

“Statistically, I’m not supposed to be in this position,” said Ogunjobi, 6-foot-2⅝ and 305 pounds. “I’m not supposed to be in the NFL playing, but God had something different for me, and it was something greater. So if you had told me this 10 years ago, I probably wouldn’t have known what you were talking about.”

Nowadays Ogunjobi exchanges text messages with some of the sport’s best defensive tackles — Geno Atkins of the Cincinnati Bengals and Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams — to pick up tricks of the trade. For the second consecutive offseason, Ogunjobi worked out with Atkins at Chip Smith Performance Systems in the Atlanta area. They trained together for about six weeks this offseason, and Ogunjobi sends film of his pass rushes to Atkins every night for critiquing.

“I feel like I’m such a better player (than I was last year) just because of the time that I took to really understand and really study film and really see things from a different perspective,” Ogunjobi said. “Everybody’s fast. Everybody’s strong. Everybody’s talented. But it’s the guys from the neck up who understand the game is mental that really make the difference.”

The Browns are eager for the preparation to pay off with Ogunjobi in the starting lineup.

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